EXCLUSIVE: Peter Berg’s next film looks to be in a full on sprint towards production as sources tell Deadline Ray Nicholson and Tom Francis are set to star in the acclaimed director’s next film The Mosquito Bowl for Netflix. They join Nicholas Galitzine and Bill Skarsgard in the pic which revolves around the four main characters they play. Berg will direct and the project falls under Berg’s deal with the studio which he recently reupped.
Details as to the roles to be played by the two are under wraps. Based on Buzz Bissinger’s New York Times bestseller The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II, the film is set after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when four of America’s top college football stars set their fame aside to enlist in the Marines. As they prepare for the brutal invasion of Okinawa, they play in a legendary game featuring some of the greatest players in history – a game that, for many, will be the last they ever play.
Berg penned the adaptation with Mark L. Smith. Producers on the project include Berg for Film 44, Brian Grazer for Imagine Entertainment, and Alex Gayner. Ezra Emanuel is serving as exec producer.
Berg has been hard at work in recent weeks meeting with actors who will play the four leads and in recent weeks landed on these four. Similar to Friday Night Lights, which Berg also directed with Grazer producing, the roles were highly coveted given how they could have similar star making power that those parts had in that other sports drama Berg is well known for.
Film 44 came to renew its live-action creative partnership with Netflix following the success of Berg’s limited series American Primeval, which spent four weeks in Netflix’s Global Top 10 TV (English) and racked up 35.1 million views following its debut in January. Previously, Film 44’s Netflix limited series Painkiller, directed by Berg, spent five weeks in the Global Top 10 TV List (English), garnering 29.1M views.
Nicholson had himself quite the 2024 as he was most recently, Ray starred in Smile 2, the sequel to the highly successful first of the franchise for Paramount. He also starred opposite Sofia Black D’Elia in Cazzie David’s and Elisa Kalani’s comedy I Love You Forever, which premiered to rave reviews at SXSW in 2024.
Nicholson currently stars in Berk and Olsen’s Novocaine for Paramount opposite Jack Quaid and Amber Midthunder, and in the lead role in Borderline written and directed by Jimmy Warden, opposite Samara Weaving and Eric Dane for LuckyChap.
Ray was also seen in a pivotal supporting role opposite Willem Dafoe, Sean Penn and Patricia Arquette in Patricia’s directorial debut Gonzo Girl, which premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.
Francis is an Olivier Award winner for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance in Sunset Blvd., which he is currently reprising in his Broadway debut in New York. He will next be seen opposite Penn Badgley in the final season of “You”, which will launch on Netflix on April 24th. His other theatre credits include & Juliet and Rent.
Nicholson is repped by UTA and Francis is repped by CAA and Linden Entertainment.
